1. Field of the Invention
A hanger bar for hanging a plurality of garments each mounted on one of a plurality of individual and discrete hangers in a wardrobe carton, so that the garments may be shipped in the carton to a destination without being dislodged or falling to the bottom of the carton in a heap.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the shipping of garments or articles of clothing, especially from manufacturer to warehouse or from warehouse to retail outlet, it was the practice a number of years ago to ship the clothing by folding the garments and placing them layer upon layer in a container. Since most garments or articles of clothing are normally supported upon hangers when made or stored, this procedure involved the necessity of removing each garment from its respective hanger, and manually folding the same; and doing the same operations in reverse order at the end of the trip to which the garments have been subjected. In view of the fact that the garments are folded and laid upon each other, it is frequently necessary in such a packaging procedure to pad or separate the various garments by means of tissue paper, ect., in an effort to prevent unsightly creases. Furthermore, in as much as the garments packed at the lowest portions of the container support the weight of all of the garments thereabove, undesirable creasing and wrinkling must necessarily occur and this condition is aggravated by hot or humid conditions of travel. On the receiving end, considerable manual effort, time and bother were required in order to place the garments into saleable condition. The garments had to be removed from the container, usually one by one, and then sponged and/or steam pressed, and placed upon hangers.
All of these costly and unnecessary steps were obviated with the development of hanger bars of various configurations, by means of which a plurality of garment hangers and associated mounted garments could be suspended from the hanger bar structure and within the wardrobe carton, with the plurality of garment hangers being mounted seriatim and in registration on the hanger bar, and the hanger bar in turn, being mounted on and between two opposed upper edges of the wardrobe carton or container. Thus, it was now only necessary to take the garments already on hangers and to hang up these hangers within a new container. The "hanging-up" operation is so simple, that a plurality of hangers having garments thereon may be "hung up" at one time, prior to the beginning of the trip or other shipping. During transit, each garment is supported upon an individual hanger, and no garment supports the weight of any of the others. At the end of the trip, it is merely and only necessary to open the container and remove the garments still on the hangers, and transfer them to racks located in the warehouse or retail outlet. Thus in summary, in the garment industry, shipping cases, containers or cartons are provided for shipping garments that are in turn, supported on conventional garment hangers. A hanger bar is provided for suspending the garment hangers, and this bar is mounted at the top of the shipping carton or container, and extends between opposed walls of the carton or container. Typically, the hanger bar is mounted on the top of the side walls of the casing or container on brackets, generally of U-shaped configuration, which are placed over the tops of the opposite vertical side walls. The garment hanger and hanger bar are generally disposable items supplied to the garment manufacturer, since any rust on the hanger or hanger bar could cause damage to clothes, if the hangers were repeatedly used. For this reason, hanger bars and clothes hangers are extremely high-volume items. Nevertheless, to date, these items have been comparatively expensive to manufacture. This is especially true of the hanger bar, because of the multiplicity of sheet-metal-forming steps to construct a bracket of sufficient strength and durability to maintain the garments in the proper position during the sometimes rugged movement encountered during shipment. These hangers have generally taken the form of U-shaped end brackets which fit over the upper ends of the sides of the garment carton, with the hanger bar suspended on the brackets and extending across the interior of the carton to provide a support for the clothes hangers at the upper end of the carton or casing. The various manners of attaching the bar to the brackets to provide a rugged interconnection has in the past contributed greatly to the cost of these items.
One of the problems encountered when shipping garments in wardrobe cartons and on individual hangers mounted on a hanger bar is that displacement, rough handling, transfer, impact, vibration, dropping, inversion, tilting, etc. of the carton can result in the dislodging of the hangers from the hanger bar, so that at the end of the shipping trip the garments and associated hangers are to be found lying in a pile or heap on the floor or bottom of the wardrobe carton, thus defeating the purposes of the hanger bar. One solution to this problem is discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,465, which teaches an improved wardrobe hanger bar construction, whereby the hanger bar includes an upper locking cap which may be quickly and readily assembled with the main body portion of the hanger bar, so that wire coat hangers carried thereon may be locked against inadvertent movement or displacement, and against disengagement of the wire hangers from the hanger bar by such movement.
Among the other recent prior art relative to hanger bars and the like may be mentioned, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,139,102; 4,034,866; 3,902,597; 3,800,960; 3,773,184; 3,743,106; 3,633,760; 3,613,898; 3,610,427; 3,610,423; 3,519,139; 3,480,153; 3,403,787 and 3,380,596.